The Woman They Call Kitty
by verkisto
Summary: Serenity's new cook is sweet on Jayne. But what else is she cooking up besides grub for the crew?
1. Jayne Gets a Surprise

Jayne was hot, tired, grimy and, most of all, stinking as he returned to Serenity. When Mal had told him to go and load a client's cargo that morning, the captain hadn't mentioned that it was several skips of large, heavy crates involving multiple trips out and back on the mule. And the final load Jayne was bringing in now still had to be unloaded and stowed when he got back to the ship.

So the last thing he needed as he approached the cargo bay ramp was to see more work waiting for him in the form of another pile of crates on the ground. Gorram citizens!

Mal was talking to one now, probably the new crew Jayne had heard some buzz about yesterday. He looked short, shorter than Mal, anyway, and he was wearing robes from head to toe. Probably some punk kid fresh out of flight school. Wouldn't be any kind of replacement for Wash. Jayne was sure Zoë wouldn't think so, anyway.

He parked the mule and trailer and got out to walk over to where the pair was standing. As he approached, Mal turned towards him and started speaking.

"Jayne, this here's Kitty. I hired her on as cook and general housekeeper. That'll free up Kaylee to tend the engine now that Wash – well, you know..."

But Jayne wasn't listening. As the figure turned around and he saw that it was a burqa he was looking at, he immediately focused on the two open slits in the facial area that revealed a pair of bright blue eyes outlined with kohl, and even without the rest of the face Jayne could see the warmth in them as they twinkled with humor.

He managed to stutter out, "Pleased ta meetcha," and tried to pay attention as Kitty and the captain outlined where he was to put each of the new crew member's various crates and boxes.

* * *

><p>Surprised at how light the last one was, Jayne hefted the crate up on one shoulder and proceeded to the guest quarters. Kitty had been assigned a regular bunk in the crew quarters, Kaylee's old one across from his, but she also had some deal with the captain about renting a spare room in the guest quarters for her own use, and that's where he was taking the crate when Kaylee appeared at the doorway from inside Simon's and her room.<p>

"Hey, Jayne," she said, wrinkling her nose when he got near enough for her to smell him. "Workin' hard today?"

"Yup," he replied, stepping over the sill into the unoccupied room and lowering the crate to the floor near three others. "Hear you don't gotta cook no more. Too bad. You was gettin' pretty good at it."

Kaylee, pleased with the compliment, smiled and lowered her eyes to the decking for a moment before looking up again at the big man, who was now stepping back out into the companionway.

"What a sweet thing to say, Jayne," she observed.

"Sweet ain't got nothin' to do with it," he replied. "Easier to eat good-tastin' grub than _nánwén_ swill, is all."

"Well, I'm sure you'll have no problem now with a real cook on board, not that you ever did have any problem. Oh, and you might want to have a quick shower and change your clothes afore mess," Kaylee said, looking him up and down, noting the liberal amounts of dust and grime and the large patches of sweat under his arms and down the front of his tee shirt.

"What fer?" he demanded, brows bunched together over his nose. "Ain't one pantywaist on this crew enough?"

"Sorry, Doc, no offense," he added, smirking, as Simon, appearing beside Kaylee in the doorway, tugged on the bottom of his vest and checked to make sure all the buttons were done up correctly.

Turning sharply and sauntering off in the direction of the cargo hold to finish his other job, Jayne chuckled to himself at the doctor's indignant exclamation of, "Hey!"

* * *

><p>Hoping he wasn't going to miss out on all the food, Jayne strode a little faster than usual towards the galley when he got a whiff of the heavenly smell of cooked meat wafting through the passageway. Looking down so as not to trip on the bulkhead, he stepped over and onto the top stair, letting his long legs take him past the next few stairs to the lower level of decking. When he finally raised his head, he was unprepared for the sight that met his eyes.<p>

Everyone was there before him, already seated, their full plates in front of them. All seated except for one, that is. He registered a compact set of shapely hips encased in tight-fitting twill pants, buttocks brushed by the end of a long honey colored braid, and he stopped in his tracks, his eyes widening and jaw swinging open.

Faces swiveled towards him and conversation around the table ceased, replaced by various sniggers, as Jayne, still dumfounded and looking more than usually stupid, continued to stare. At the change in the room's atmosphere, Kitty turned around, fixing him with her sparkling blue eyes, serving platter and fork in her hands. Now he was regretting not having that shower.

"Well, set yerself down, man," she said, indicating a vacant chair along the side of the table with her serving fork.

Sidling hesitantly at first towards the chair and then hurrying ahead of the woman, flinching as though he were afraid she might touch him, Jayne sat and looked up in time to have his field of vision dominated by a pair of full breasts in a low-cut tank top as Kitty leaned across him to plunk a thick steak, twice the size of everyone else's, onto his plate. Gulping in confusion and wearing an extremely guilty look, Jayne turned his head around quickly and fixed his gaze on the table in front of him.

"Potatoes, Jayne?" inquired Kaylee, offering him the pot and spoon from her place next to him.

"What?" he shouted into Kaylee's face as he jumped in his chair, completely panicked now, his eyes wide and uncomprehending.

Zoë could hardly contain herself as she shook with mirth, clutching her stomach and gasping out, "They're tubers, Jayne. I hear they're good."

Kaylee took pity on him and scooped mashed potatoes and boiled fresh vegetables onto his plate, then poured gravy over top of everything, and by the time she was finished, Jayne had pulled himself together enough to turn his head until he located Kitty again, standing on the opposite side of the table, spearing a piece of meat and setting it onto her own plate.

When he saw that she wasn't laughing at him like the others, just smiling friendly-like, he relaxed and smiled back at her, dropping his eyes to linger briefly on her impressive cleavage before moving them back up to her face.

She turned away for a moment to put the platter and fork on the countertop behind her, and when she turned back, she looked directly into his eyes. It made Jayne feel a little funny but not in the same way as before. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, and he was just starting to puzzle it out when Kitty, hands on hips, said, "I ain't spent the last coupl'a hours over a hot stove so's you could goggle at the food, man. Eat!"

Jayne was only too happy to comply. He picked up his fork in one fist, his knife in the other and sawed off a large chunk of meat, shoving it into one cheek and beginning to chew. His eyes closed as the flavor was released, and everyone around the table who had been either smiling behind their hands or outright laughing, even Inara, flushed as a decidedly orgasmic moan bubbled up from somewhere deep in Jayne's chest.

Kitty, observing him closely, merely nodded once, satisfied with her work. She sat down, placed her napkin on her lap, and picked up her knife and fork to begin her meal.

* * *

><p>After supper was over, Kaylee started stacking plates and cutlery to bring them around to the sink. Kitty stopped her with a curt, "Hey, girl! That's my job now," and shooed them all away and into the lounge area.<p>

Jayne, full to bursting, sat heavily on the couch and plunked his booted feet onto the coffee table in front of him, stretching his legs out and smiling, and began to scratch his crotch until he noticed Kaylee looking at him with that disapproving civilizing look that all women seemed to know from birth.

Grinning at her, he dug in and gave a couple more enthusiastic scratches just to make his point and settled back into the cushions, sighing deeply and looking around himself idly, nothing in particular on his mind.

River and the captain had already gone up to the bridge to see about lifting off and Zoë had disappeared somewhere or other, maybe with the captain and River. Kaylee and Inara were setting up a game of checkers on the table in the corner and Simon was sitting in a chair flipping through a big, thick medical book he had bought planetside. Being educated in the core and all, the doctor didn't have to move his lips to work through the words when he read the way Jayne did.

Contentment. That's what he had felt when Kitty had looked at him and that's why it had taken him a while to get to what it was. He was feeling it now. And he hadn't felt that in a very long time.

Jayne was just beginning to doze off when the couch moved beside him. Opening his eyes, he saw another pair of booted feet on the table, about half the size of his, and when he turned to look at the owner, she was concentrating on the contents of a large cloth bag, her head bent, one arm reaching in to the bottom and pulling out some knitting. Jayne's face split into a grin and he shifted his weight so he could face Kitty a little more directly as she figured out where she had left off and started adding new stitches to the garment.

"My ma knits stuff fer me," he stated eagerly. "I got a nice hat, real warm. I kin show it to ya, if ya like."

"I'd like ta see that," was the response. Jayne was disappointed, though, when she didn't take her eyes from her work.

Frowning slightly, Jayne opened his mouth, took in a breath, then closed it abruptly, not sure whether to keep speaking. The sudden need he felt to have Kitty look at him again was overpowering, however, and he gave it another shot.

"Woman, that was about the best horse steak I ever et. And that apple pie sure was tasty." This one had done the trick. Kitty paused in her knitting and turned her face to his, her look stern.

"Well, man, don't get used to it," she replied. "That there fresh food was payment for my work room, kind of a barter 'til I kin start makin' some real money to pay the captain for the space. Tomorra you all are back on rice and protein packs."

Lowering her head once again, busily clicking her needles, she added, "So let me get back to my handiwork so's I'll have somethin' to sell on the next world."

Jayne, happy that his plan had worked, if only for a few moments, was perfectly content to sit quietly and watch Kitty knit, wondering how it was done.

And there was that feeling again: contentment. It sure was popping up all over.

* * *

><p><em>nánwén<em> - stinky


	2. Jayne Gets Some Sugar

Waking up with a start and a snort, Jayne, blinking sleepily, looked around the lounge and was surprised to see that everyone had gone and left him there to his after-dinner nap. Nothing like a hard day's work and a full stomach to put a man down for the night. Oh, and some good trim, of course. When there was any to be had.

Thinking about sex now, Jayne stood up and decided the best place to be was in his bunk where he could sleep – or not – undisturbed, but when he turned towards the stairs that would lead to the crew quarters, he was startled to see Kitty standing quietly outside the infirmary, just watching, as though she had been waiting for the mercenary to finish his nap.

"Thought you was gonna sleep right through to the day cycle, man," she observed as she began to slowly descend the stairs towards the deck.

"Just about did, woman, from the looks of it," Jayne replied, and he ran one palm over his scalp to smooth his hair, concerned all of a sudden that there might be a piece sticking up here or there.

Wondering for a moment why he seemed to be worrying about his appearance, Jayne gave himself a mental shake and moved towards the bottom of the stairway, but when he reached it, he found himself literally face-to-face with Kitty, who had stopped on the second stair from the bottom and blocked his path by placing herself directly in the middle and grasping a handrail to either side.

Jayne's eyes widened in surprise as Kitty brought her face – and her lips – closer to his. He could feel a surge of adrenaline hit his solar plexus and freeze it mid-breath as the hairs on his forearms and the back of his neck tingled and sprang straight up in the air. Rooted to the spot but with every sense alert from the adrenaline surging through his system, Jayne could feel the light brush of Kitty's cheek against his as she sought out his ear and whispered, "How's about you and me go to your bunk and get to know each other a bit better, man?"

Jayne's breathing started up again suddenly, and he gulped down a large mouthful of air while clamping his eyes closed and screwing the lids together tightly. Maybe when he opened them the dream would be over and he'd be alone again, on his way to his bunk, and not confronted with the sight and smell of a live, warm and apparently willing woman. One who could cook almost as good as his ma. And who looked like she had a few of the good kind of miles on her, you know the kind. A woman who could read a man and give him just what he needed. Who could make him feel strong and proud just by standing beside him. Who could also make him feel the hot fever of wanting her, in their bed or out, just by the way she looked at him. And who was strong in her own right, strong enough to let him be a man and, from time to time, entice the boy inside him to be comforted with a sweet smile and a word or two of praise.

Suddenly, Jayne hoped it wasn't a dream at all, but when he had collected his wits enough to open his eyes once again, he found he was still on _Serenity_ in the middle of gorram nowhere a week away from planetfall, uncomfortably close to the new crew member and uncomfortably far away from his bunk – a fact his body uncomfortably continued to remind him of – and when he finally did reply, his voice came out in fits and starts, probably due to the fact that Kitty was alternately rubbing his rough, bristly cheek with her soft, smooth one while occasionally breathing into his ear and lightly kissing and nibbling the soft depression below his lobe and the curve of his firmly clenched jaw.

"Uh, Mal…" Jayne began. "Mal…" he repeated before grasping Kitty's upper arms in each hand to push her away from his face so he could look at her.

Kitty, undaunted, tried to move her head close again, murmuring, "Now, I know you and Mal ain't got anything goin' on, man. He's pinin' fer that Companion gal. And you're a straight-up kind of fella if there ever was one." Pausing in her maneuvering for a moment to glance down between them, Kitty added, her face split in a wide cat-like grin, "In fact, I'd say 'straight up' pretty much covers everything at the moment."

Jayne was going to have to think quickly here, which wasn't usually one of his strong suits, but his brain began to click over faster and faster, almost as fast as it did when he was tracking or when he was being tracked.

He remembered his daddy telling him about how women were valuable on rim worlds because of their ability to breed but that it went way beyond that. They were human beings, beautiful and precious, each one, and were to be treated with dignity and honor and loved not only with a man's body but with his mind too. And young Jayne could see that his daddy was telling the truth by the shine in his mama's eyes whenever they trudged in from the day's work in the fields and his parents shared a look and an embrace that reinforced this empowering concept in an impressionable boy's mind.

When his thoughts sped back to the present, Jayne was still trying to figure out how to let Kitty know without insulting her that he was in his current state of arousal when she found him, not that she had caused it, and since she wasn't a working girl, the situation wasn't as simple for Jayne as if coin had changed hands. And that there were rules about these types of things, especially aboard _Serenity_.

Jayne, having made up his mind to deal with the situation there and then, began decisively, "Woman, we's crew, and, like I was tryin' ta tell ya, Mal don't like any grapplin' twixt crew going on on his ship."

Hesitating for a moment, Jayne added, with a pained expression on his face, "Except fer Kaylee and Simon. And Zoë and Wash, her husband what's dead now. But that all happened against orders."

Kitty frowned and blew some air out through her nostrils. "Nobody'd like to disobey that order more than the captain himself, man. Anybody can see that."

"You know it and I know it and so does the whole 'verse except the man himself, but that's the way it is. I need this job, woman, and he's the captain, so what he says goes, even if it is nothin' but _ri shao gou shi bing_."

Kitty lowered her chin and frowned, consternation clear on her face, as if she had been thwarted in some plan, and Jayne was just beginning to ponder whether she might be scheming something when she reverted to the expression she had been wearing before, her heavily lidded eyes and full-lipped mouth displaying for Jayne a definite come-hither message. Except this time there was also a twinkle in the bright blue of her captivating eyes.

"Well, mayhaps tonight you're gonna have to make do, man, but what about when we ain't on the ship?"

Jayne considered Kitty's statement for only a moment before the corners of his mouth began to turn up. Now, here was what those lawyer fellas called a loophole, and it seemed to fit the bill. Grinning fully now, Jayne's reply rumbled up from deep in his chest as his voice dropped a few registers.

"That there might just work, woman," he replied, the rumble turning into a slight groan as Kitty pushed towards him again.

"Normally, I'd make it official with a handshake, but I think this one calls for a kiss, don't you, man?" Kitty purred, acting on her suggestion right away by touching her moistened lips ever so lightly to one side of Jayne's mouth.

Jayne closed his eyes to better enjoy the airy kisses on his face and licked his lips with the tip of his tongue before answering. "Can't see any harm in that, woman. T'ain't the same as grapplin', after all."

Placing a palm on either side of Kitty's face to turn her just the way he wanted, Jayne planted a moist and tender kiss on his crewmate, just the kind of kiss to show a woman how she was valued and what high regard she was held in. Then he turned it into the kind of kiss that let her know that a man had more on his mind than merely an intellectual relationship. Much, much more.

* * *

><p>After she had let Jayne pass to go to his cabin, Kitty remained standing on the stairway, a little dazed and mystified by Jayne's kiss. Now, this was a puzzler, for sure, and she tried to work through what had just happened as she slowly got her breathing under control again.<p>

He wanted some bunk time with her, no doubt about it, but why not right then? All the signs had pointed to it, so why not right then? And why not right there, for that matter, but Kitty chuckled to herself when she imagined the awkwardness that would cause if any of the rest of the ship's inhabitants caught the two of them _in flagrante delicto_. No, it was better this way. By the time she sealed the deal, Kitty would be in complete control of the situation and, more importantly, in complete control of the dumb mountain of muscle that had fallen so easily into her trap. Just the way all of them had before.

Well, not quite exactly the same way, and this was the puzzling part. Kitty reached up tentatively and touched the ends of her fingers to her lips as she remembered Jayne's kiss. It wasn't the way of things, in her estimation, that men like Jayne worried about other people's feelings out here in the black. They were rough and crude and insensitive and easy to manipulate. Sure, they would protect a woman if they thought they might lose her to another man, but here was this big lummox kissing her like he cared. Like she meant something to him. Like there was a chance of love.

Shivering a bit in the ship's cool night cycle air, Kitty imagined for a moment what it would be like to let down her guard and allow a man like Jayne to love her. She let out a long, slow breath and relaxed as she replayed his kiss in her mind. Especially the end part. The part where she had felt that somehow he had turned into the dominant person in their budding relationship and she was more than willing to be the compliant one as long as this feeling that was stretching warm tendrils of emotion to her icy heart were to continue forever. And, more specifically, the part where she felt, for a change, that she wanted to love him back.

"Nah, that's not it," Kitty finally decided, and she swiveled around and finished descending the stairs on the way to her storage room. There was just time enough to check on everything before she had to start the bread for breakfast. Maybe sweetened bread rolls for her new dumb sweetie. Might be just the thing to keep him interested until they hit dirt and she could reel him in with her full bag of tricks.

* * *

><p><em>ri shao gou shi bing<em> - pile of sun-baked dog poo


End file.
